Long Beach couple bound, pistol-whipped in home invasion robbery

Police investigate a home-invasion robbery where a couple was reportedly bound and pistol-whipped. The crime took place in the 3100 block of Shadypark Drive. In Long Beach December 4, 2013. (Photo by Beatriz Valenzuela / Press Telegram)

LONG BEACH >> Police are investigating a home-invasion robbery just after noon Wednesday that sent a couple to the hospital.

The couple was reportedly bound and pistol-whipped at their residence in the 3100 block of Shadypark Drive at the corner of Pageantry Street, a middle class residential area on the eastside, according to neighbors and Long Beach police officials.

“I looked outside and I saw my neighbor on the ground outside in his yard and another guy was on top of him,” said a neighbor who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation.

She ran outside and screamed, which frightened off the attacker. He then jumped into a silver Toyota Corolla and left the scene, the witness said.

Officers were called out around 12:30 p.m., said Marlene Arrona, spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department. As of late afternoon, police hadn’t made any arrests, according to officers at the scene.

The male victim and his wife were bleeding, the witness said. His wife was found bound with an electrical cord in the entryway of the residence, she said.

The witness described the attackers as two males and one female.

Neighbor Robert Driml was upset that such a crime could take place in the usually-quiet neighborhood.

“I saw the car sitting there and it was running,” he said. “At first I thought there was no one in there until I saw a woman slouched down inside.”

Driml said the vehicle and woman looked out of place, but he didn’t say anything to her.

“Then I saw one guy ­­— he was wearing a nice white shirt and white gloves — run to the car and was hollering to go,” Driml said. He then saw a young man jump into the running silver vehicle which quickly sped away. He said he didn’t see a second man.

Driml said this was the second time the couple had been victimized by a home-invasion robbery.

“A few months ago they were broken into but they weren’t home that time,” he said.

The couple was transported to a local hospital where they are being treated and interviewed by police, Arrona said.

Distraught friends and neighbors said the female victim worked as a nurse at a local hospital. A colleague left her shift to check on the couple.

Witnesses said the couple was home alone at the time of the attack. They said the man and woman, who are in their 50s, have an adult daughter who is away at college.

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“This is too much,” said the female neighbor. “I don’t feel safe anymore. I mean, I have a pit bull here and we all talk to each other, but I just don’t feel as safe as I used to.”

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Robbery Detail at 562-570-7464.